Praise is warming and desirable. But it is an earned thing. It has to be deserved, like a hug from a child.

Borrow my umbrellas, my clothes, my money, and I will likely not think of them again. But borrow my books and I will be on your track like a bloodhound until they are returned.

I do not know who first invented the myth of sexual equality. But it is a myth willfully fostered and nourished by certain semi-scientists and other fiction writers. And it has done more, I suspect, to unsettle marital happiness than any other false doctrine of this myth-ridden age.

Happiness puts on as many shapes as discontent, and there is nothing odder than the satisfaction of one's neighbor.

Kindness is a virtue neither modern nor urban. One almost unlearns it in a city. Towns have their own beatitude; they are not unfriendly; they offer a vast and solacing anonymity or an equally vast and solacing gregariousness. But one needs a neighbor on whom to practice compassion.

suffering is as necessary to entertaining as vermouth is to a Martini - a small but vital ingredient.

It's this no-nonsense side of women that is pleasant to deal with. They are the real sportsmen.